1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to multimedia content; and, more particularly, to Internet based video sourcing/streaming.
2. Related Art
Research and development in recent years have led many Internet based commercial operators to seize the opportunities and deliver multitudes of server based services that were unthinkable only few years ago. These services include delivery of streaming audio and video to a plurality of computers world wide. Thus, a user may be able to access audio or video content of one's own region anywhere in the world. These services are typically charged on monthly or pay per view basis and the user has to login and authenticate before being able to utilize these services.
One specific type of service that relates to delivery of audio and video content is delivery of a plurality of television and radio programs from across the world to the user's computers. The servers typically redirect the users to a corresponding television or radio source server and the user is able to access the television broadcast from these source servers. The above mentioned television programs are typically called Internet protocol Tele-Vision (IPTV), because these television programs are transported (either live or stored program files from servers) to the user's computer by using Internet protocol technology; that is, by compressing, time stamping and packetizing programs, using Internet protocol.
Delays also occur in IPTV programming during periods of changing of channels, for various reasons. During channel change operations a controlling server redirects a user's computer to a differing content server. The user computer must reestablish an audio video session with the new content server, which often has different content settings/specifications (frame rate, color and resolutions etc.). Without changing the settings, only one channel at a time can be watched. In addition, each of the channels all over the world has their own handshake video setup operations. Thus, IPTV channel surfing becomes problematic because the setup of a new video stream image has significant delay, resulting in a blank/black screen during the channel change operation. These and other limitations and deficiencies associated with the related art may be more fully appreciated by those skilled in the art after comparing such related art with various aspects of the present invention as set forth herein with reference to the figures.